Mr and Mrs K's New Journey to a Debt Free Life.

nicp60

Hi,
Excellent progress I see - well done!!

Credit reports - it takes 6 years from the date of a default for the entry to be removed, regardless of whether the debt was paid or not. Now the tricky bit is that some creditors deliberately avoid placing a default on file, some do and then change the info and some debt collection agencies add a second default to something that should be long gone! The only thing to do is to get your files and check them thoroughly. This can wait though, I wouldn't worry about it too much until 12 months or so before you want some credit. 12 months because if there are errors on there, it can take a while to have them sorted out. If you do want to check, you can get one free from Noddle (Call Credit, one of the Credit Reference Agencies) and the others for £2 each from Equifax and Experian.

Budgeting - Personally I have struggled with this, but now have separate accounts for some stuff which isn't monthly. I also use some budgeting software which has transformed my finances by helping with this very issue.

Do you mind me asking Alex, how you're entitled to Working Tax and Child Tax Credits? We take home quite a bit less than you (£2k a month) and have been told we're entitled to precisely nothing (aside from £80 child benefit), despite high childcare costs and OH being self-employed (but with 0 income for the last 5 years).

AlexLK

Thank you all re. the credit search stuff. At the moment I am not worried about it, I know it's bad nor do I want to get myself in any more trouble so I'm actually quite alright for it to be bad.

nicp - can you share the budgeting software, please? We are using a spreadsheet set up for monthly "accounts" at the moment.

Also, I'm honestly not sure re. the child / working tax credits Mrs. K. has dealt with all of that. I honestly wasn't aware we got anything until this week. However, I never used to check our accounts at all. Hoping we haven't got to pay it all back, now....

ETA: Could this be because neither Mrs. K. nor I work full time at the moment as well as having a low income? I've had a word and she reckons it will go down when she goes back full time in October. Please don't say it's another thing we've royally ...... up with and will have to pay back.

theoretica

With your buying and selling do you also have the skills to see if any of the poor neglected violins around are worth rescuing. Even building up a small stable to rent to students might be worth while, though most of the ones I see around are full size. Lesson fees are the bigger earner, so roping in an extra pupil with a cheap rental can work out well.

I would however urge a bit of caution about how much capital you end up investing - it is so easy for the buying to get far ahead of the selling. And remember to put aside money for the tax on your dealing!

As for the schools, I went to a school smaller than that from 4-8 and it was great for those years: learning basic skills and a modicum of socialisation. But it was obviously time for me to leave and I then went off to an academic hot house - I didn't feel behind at all, the main disadvantage was the longer commute...

Orange_Ena

AlexLK wrote: »

The cashback sounds rather complicated, though it's usually Mrs. K. that buys things online so she'd probably know more about it. I do buy things too but it tends to be old stuff on eBay and I don't believe I'm getting cashback for buying people's old pens, car parts, Chesterfield suites and watches, am I?

Well no, but you can collect Nectar points on eBay :D:rotfl:

I might have made the cashback thing complicated, but it really isn't!

AlexLK

So ... here goes! This entry is rather more boring than yesterday's for a lot didn't happen. I hope I don't bore you too much:

Wednesday 4th September, 2013
Day 3.

Dear Diary,

Not an awful lot to report today; it's been a quiet one yet we are both tired mainly due to our little "darling" waking us up early this morning.

At this moment in time, sat here, writing this entry, I'm currently craving a stiff drink like you wouldn't believe. I was going to have a Scotch or two instead until Mrs. K. reminded me that cost more than the wine and the new rule is no alcohol until Saturday evening. No alcohol; you hear me correctly, it appears the word "wine" that we wrote in our statement did not just encompass wine itself but any liquid likely to give me a bad head the morning after. Only 3 days until wine-o'clock, thank goodness.

So far as my debt busting goes I've made some progress: drafting a letter to the two collection agencies, listing the Chesterfield chair I spoke about yesterday on eBay, taking photos of three pens and dutifully filling in our spreadsheet which now details our monetary position on a day by day basis. Oh, I've also managed to be a very good boy and walk to the post office instead of driving. Furthermore, following the advice I have been given on this board by the lovely wegle to leave my wallet at home. Can I suggest next time you advise I leave the boy at home instead? For whilst he enjoyed the walk, he didn't like me saying 'no' to his request for a treat. Well, "didn't like" is probably a rather too erudite manner in which to classify his violent outburst over not being allowed about £2.00 worth of sweets; it seems they call them the "terrible twos" for a reason after all.

Moving swiftly on from my embarrassment in the post office: our neighbour brought round half a dozen eggs and an old butter container full of blackberries from his garden and you all thought rural life was boring? Just after the sixty-seven year old green fingered neighbour left, I took a call from a friend of a friend wanting to book a trial violin lesson for his son. My, my, word spreads fast round here or is it the fact my wife likes to gossip? Anyhow, I've now got two booked in for Friday, so that's another £50.00 to be added to the income column so long as they actually turn up.

Summary:
-£20.00 Petrol.
-£6.18 Bakery, Butchers.

Yours Faithfully,
Alex.

AlexLK

Orange_Ena wrote: »

Well no, but you can collect Nectar points on eBay :D:rotfl:

I might have made the cashback thing complicated, but it really isn't!

I already do

Currently day-dreaming of the amount of cashback I would receive upon the online purchase of limited edition Mont Blanc or two .... :shocked:

AlexLK

theoretica wrote: »

With your buying and selling do you also have the skills to see if any of the poor neglected violins around are worth rescuing. Even building up a small stable to rent to students might be worth while, though most of the ones I see around are full size. Lesson fees are the bigger earner, so roping in an extra pupil with a cheap rental can work out well.

I would however urge a bit of caution about how much capital you end up investing - it is so easy for the buying to get far ahead of the selling. And remember to put aside money for the tax on your dealing!

As for the schools, I went to a school smaller than that from 4-8 and it was great for those years: learning basic skills and a modicum of socialisation. But it was obviously time for me to leave and I then went off to an academic hot house - I didn't feel behind at all, the main disadvantage was the longer commute...

Not really, I can't do much more than a restring, I'm not a luthier or even somebody who dabbles in such things. However, eventually buying a few to rent / for pupils to try the instrument could be a good idea.

LOL on the buying getting ahead of the selling, Mrs. K. is here to make sure the selling stays on the right side. Hmmm tax you say, what's that? :rotfl: (I merely wish I could get away without paying such things).

That's interesting, I am beginning to wonder if at pre-Prep age the local school would actually be OK. Seems Mrs. K. and I will be adding reading OFSTED reports to our increasingly long list of things to do.

debtfreewannabe321

don't worry about your son he'll get used to being told 'no' they all do eventually and the younger the better! My 2 smaller ones rarely ask for anything now and if they do the other one will usually put them in check and say 'mummy has no money on her, she forgot her purse remember?!'

Well done on getting so many bookings for music lessons already, what a great start! I wish i'd carried on with the piano now, hmmm.

There is a NSD challenge on the board somewhere and it's gerat fun to join up to, I found if I joined in for the month I would often go out and think to myself, 'do I really want to confess to everyone later on mse that I spent X amount on something I didn't even need' and that would usually sort out any silly spends whilst it may sound slightly odd that I was scared of confessing to people I don't even know, it was also good in the fact I rarely spent on oddities just because I could! So therefore did me a great favour (and my bank lol).

I have online savings for emergency, rental house emergency, dog, presents fund, and one named 'health' I put dental costs, prescription money & hair dressing into this one. I have a cashbox with ziplock bags and written on each is 'food', 'petrol', 'pocket money', 'kid's clubs'. I take cash out each month for the 'envelope system' and when I go shopping for food etc I leave my debit card at home. If I only have X amount of cash that is all I can spend I still don't trust myself enough to take it out lol!

You're doing really well so far and i'm enjoying all the updates! I love the enthusiasm on new diaries

Orange_Ena

AlexLK wrote: »

I already do

Currently day-dreaming of the amount of cashback I would receive upon the online purchase of limited edition Mont Blanc or two .... :shocked:

I pretty much knew that you weren't daydreaming of buying a mountain but I had to google what else it could be. :rotfl: All I can say about the prices of those watches or pens is :eek::eek::eek::D

debtfreewannabe321

AlexLK wrote: »

I already do

Currently day-dreaming of the amount of cashback I would receive upon the online purchase of limited edition Mont Blanc or two .... :shocked:

:rotfl: When I first started I went cold turkey on my nightly bottle of wine :eek::eek::eek: (not quite an alcoholic...)! I saved a fortune! I'll happily go without now! Today I had 6 kids to look after though and have a headache, so am drinking a wine spritzer sorry, :rotfl: much needed tonic today:D